You know, I’m dumbfounded. While I might question or not understand how someone could vote for one candidate or another, I try to keep the name calling and mud slinging to a minimum and stick to facts and my own interpretations of what the candidates put out there, say and do.

Fast forward to tonight, when I found out that because I don’t share (however still respect) the majority of my friends’ opinion on who should be our next president I am now apparently: stupid, retarded, inept, shitty, incompetent, a whack-job, nut case and many other expletives I choose not to repeat in my blog. Oh and the big one that irks the living DAYLIGHTS out of me and is beyond offensive. We’ll leave it at that.  Even in jest, frustration or whatever that kind of crap is uncalled for. And don’t get me started on how NEGATIVE this entire campaign season has been across the boards from the national elections all the way down to the local elections. All the mudslinging from both sides disgusts me and makes me less enamored with any candidate no matter their record.

Fact of the matter is I don’t have to agree with the “majority” within my circle of friends (but perhaps I should reevaluate who I associate with, hmmm?) on 100% of the issues all the time any more than I have to agree with a candidates specific stance on all the issues or any of them agree with my point of view 24/7. However, I’d like to think I do share a level of respect for all of those people whose beliefs differ from my own and would like to assume I could share that same amount of respect back at me. But I’m finding that’s not the case.

I don’t go waving my banner proclaiming which party I align with, choosing a “don’t ask, don’t tell” type of policy when it comes to politics for the most part, perhaps letting my guard down a bit when I know I’m surrounded by like-minded people, or even those that have proven to have a level head while having a difference of opinion. I hate the frothing at the mouth, rabid and acerbic “debates” that people get into and how easily the attacks becomes personal  instead of focusing on issues and policies the closer it gets to a major election. Especially one as monumental as this.

I’m not looking for anyone to change my mind about my political stance any more than I’m looking to change that of someone else. It’s a personal decision and each person comes at the issues with a different and diverse point of view. But I’d love to have an honest to God discussion with people of different viewpoints without it dissolving to a knock down, drag out cage match filled with name calling and finger pointing.

I’d just like to not get called out on the carpet or labeled with nasty words and names. Can’t we all just get along?

So yeah, that cat just cracks me up. Hey Higgs, it’s your tail!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!

Yeah, we’re totally becoming Surly Brewing Co. fankids, I know.

But hey, we want to take advantage of all the Darkness out there on tap before we have to start breaking into our bottles at home. So tonight was the “Official” release party of Surly’s Darkness over on the U of MN campus at Stub & Herbs.

We got there a little late (ok, an hour late) because I had a Mary Kay appointment that night and got caught up in all that jazz. At least Chris was nice enough to wait for me to go and didn’t leave me behind. When we finally got over there, after I got all disoriented because I hadn’t been on campus in over 10 years really, we managed to snag a parking place right in back of the bar. That in itself should have been a miracle, because the place was PACKED. The entire patio was filled, the bar was hot, cramped and full of people wearing Surly gear and the back room while cooler was also quite filled.

We managed as we passed the bar to grab our first beers of the night, a Darkness for me and a Coffee Bender for Chris. We grabbed a table in that back room and ordered some food since neither of us had eaten much all day. While we were back there a table full of people and a guy in a blue Surly brewer’s shirt were passing around a 7-week old baby. As I was talking to the baby’s mom I found out that she was Omar’s wife. Who’s Omar you ask? Well he’s one of the founders/owners of Surly Brewing Co. and one of the nicest, most down to earth guys I could have imagined meeting. For some reason I had built him up a bit in my head to have some kind of “celebrity” status, thankfully I couldn’t have been more wrong. Chris managed to snap some pictures of the baby who was adorable in his little pumpkin snuggler/onesie.

We ended up getting another beer a piece, a Surly Cynic for me and a Tyranena’s Rocky’s Revenge for Chris. While I thoroughly enjoyed my second beer, Chris not so much. Since he was driving, I convinced him (not that he needed much help) to not drink the rest.  When we were ready to go, we headed for the door but I stopped at Omar’s table to thank him for the great beer he’s creating which lead to a good 10 or 15 minute converstation with him as he let us in on upcoming events involving Surly beers and said he hoped to run into us again soon.

All in all a pretty good night, even if the food was greasy and salty and made me get up in the middle of the night thinking I was dying in the desert of thirst.

Ok, so we decided to head out to St. Paul tonight to the Groveland Tap to grab a glass of Darkness on tap before breaking into our, ok Chris’, bottle stash if we didn’t like it…..

OMFG. Darkness = Beergasm.

No kidding. I TOTALLY see what all the hype is about now. Damn. Unbelieveably good beer. And GT’s Juicy Lucy’s + fries were pretty damn kick ass too.

Why didn’t we move to St. Paul when we moved here again?

DARKNESS DAY!

Basically a local brewery releases their “Darkness” beer once a year, just prior to Halloween at the brewery. Chris and I had been a little apprehensive about getting up early to go over and stand in line for a beer we had never tried since we were a little less than impressed with their other beers in cans. I am however thrilled that we actually went. We were 48 people away from not being guaranteed our 6 bottles of the beer, we had cut it THAT close. People had apparently camped outside the brewery since about 6:30p LAST night for this stuff. We literally almost walked RIGHT by the wristbands that would get us our Darkness as I thought they were closer to the gates, luckily our hero Joe the volunteer stopped us and gave us our pumpkin-decorated orange band with a specific number on it (this becomes important later.)

We wandered the brewery grounds, checked out people and hung for a bit with the people that we had bonded with over the previous hour and a half in line as we bought beer tokens and tried their beers on tap for the first time. We were definitely more impressed with their offerings from the tap vs. cans. Beers I had sworn I’d never drink again I was actually enjoying (and no I wasn’t too drunk to care) I did get to taste Surly Smoke 2008 which was a really awesome and smooth beer. We got some merch from the brewery and from the Darkness release (stickers, glasses, poster, t-shirt and a surly brewers coat for me!) and then grabbed a bite to eat before reconnecting with some of our line-mates and got another beer on them for free! WOO!

After that we decided since we have another concert to get to tonight, we’d go grab our bottles of Darkness and make our way back to the car. We stopped by the merch table first to grab a limited edition poster (#30/500!) and talked to a few of the merch volunteers. They said something to guy walking by who was wearing a brewer’s coat and then mentioned to us that he WON it because of the number on his Darkness wristband. Chris and I were excited and feeling lucky and even MORE excited when the mention of potential bottles of Darkness 2007 were being given away. So we made our way over to the table to get our bottles and I was wearing my shirt from the show last night and one of the guys was like “TFK! Awesome!” so it was like an omen. The guy cut my band off and asked how many bottles I wanted, I told him “6 and I’d like to win the coat or a bottle of 2007 Darkness too please!” All with a smile of course. He told us that only the first 4 people in line got the ‘07 bottles and then he looked at his sheet and said blah-blah-52, if you had been 53 you’d be a winner. And I laughed and pulled Chris over and showed him his band, which of course was #XXX53! Chris won a cool Surly Brewing hat for the winter!

So we were amped as we walked away with our case of beer (these are GIANT 750ml bottles btw) and all our gear, half of it we had previously dumped back at the car before lunch as to not have to carry it all day.

The day was STUNNING out, sunny, cloudless and about 63 with a bit of a breeze. Couldn’t have asked for better really. It’s only gonna get better tonight at the Building 429 show that I’ll have to write about later.

The concert last night was pretty awesome but ended on an unintentional down note for me, however it was so out of anybody’s hands I’m left disappointed but not angry.

I pretty much dug everyone who played last night except for Esterlyn. They were decent, just not quite my cup of tea. Capitol Lights was awesome as an opener, even Worth Dying For was better last night than the first night and I kinda found myself digging them. KJ 52 did the same set from the night before *twirls finger* which was kind of a bummer. Fireflight however rocked my socks off which I kinda figured they would from hearing their sound check from OUTSIDE the club while we waited for the doors to open. Thousand Foot Krutch started off SO unbelievably amazing, even my old-lady self was rocking out like woah. The down note for the night however was that TFK had some MASSIVE type of equipment failure about 4 songs into their set. Chris and I think we have it narrowed down to the monitor systems for the drummer and bass players crapping out completely. This is not a good thing if your percussion can’t keep on tempo or HEAR the rest of the band. So they kinda tossed their entire set list up in the air for a bit and tried to muster on at first with some acoustic songs, but finally had to give up the goat and cut their set early (probably only 2 or 3 songs) which was a disappointment to say the least.

So my list of faves from Creation Fest in order would be:
Kutless
TFK (because they rocked while they could, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt)
Fireflight
Capital Lights (just below Fireflight)
Run Kid Run
Pillar
KJ 52
Worth Dying For
Esterlyn

We were both starving after the show since we didn’t have time to grab dinner before, so we stopped at Denny’s of all places and had some really delicious, greasy after-concert food and then came home and tried to wind down for a bit before crashing to get up early for….D-DAY!!!

I had been told by someone near and dear (Chazzie) that we HAD to see Kutless in concert. Stupidly we had not taken her advice till last night.

HOLY CRAP it was awesome. They are UNBELIEVEABLE live and I wish the entire night had just been them. Though I have to admit meeting Jon Micah before the show was surreal as he was just mingling amidst the tables after the doors had opened. No pictures though, because Chris and I always forget we have cameras on our cell phones until it’s too late. Meh!

Lineup was:
Run Kid Run (they were awesome!)
KJ 52 (entertaining, and also the MC)
Worth Dying For (not my fave in the slightest!)
Pillar (pretty decent, a good lead up to the “headliner”)
and
Kutless (HOLY $*!)()!(#)!(# they rocked my face off and I want to see them again, NOW)

Tonight is Night Two of the show and we get to see:
Esterlyn
Capital Lights
KJ 52
Worth Dying For
Fireflight
and
Thousand Foot Krutch (I’m so stoked to see these guys again!!!!!!)

I’m sure I’ll write more about tonight’s show tomorrow but Sat. is gonna be filled with stuff to do as well. Going to Surly Brewing to get a limited release beer and then going to another concert @ 3Degrees…

That show is:
Beautiful Imperfection
After Edmund
Addison Road
and
Building 429 (I can’t begin to tell you how excited Chris is for this)

I just want to stop hurting.

To stop crying at the drop of a hat.

To stop looking over at Chris and feeling utterly helpless because there’s nothing I can do to comfort him because I’m feeling much of the same pain.

I just want our kitty back.

I can’t believe how badly this hurts this time around. Never before have I been through this with someone so closely, lived in the same house at the same time, cared for the animal together like we did.

Before there was always a safe distance, a mental and physical buffer zone from the worst of the pain and the loss. This time it’s in my face 24/7, and I can’t escape it because I always have to come home to a now 1/3 more empty house.

I tried to channel some of my emotions into something artistic, I made “Brisco Balls” this afternoon and I love how they turned out. Glass Christmas ornaments with metallic mica powders inside in all his colours. But it’s not the same.  It’s not curling up on the back of the couch with us, it’s not his super soft fur on the side of his neck, it’s not his pitiful meow when he was looking for attention, it’s not the feather soft “kisses” of his nose brushing against my eyebrow… it’s just emptiness with no way to fill it.

Right now I’m wondering just how many more cat-shaped holes my heart can take.